Friday DIY: Paper Flower Bride
Tuesday's post, {Trend Tuesday} was all about wedding flowers.
Take heart, DIY Bride, we have a post for you, my dear.
For the bride who is crafty or frugal or both I tracked my time and my costs so you can decide if this floral adventure is worth your while.
All you need are some skills and inspiration (as seen below).
...that's Indonesian blend (thanks Joel) with hazelnut creamer, and Ray Lamontagne singing sweetly to me in the background.
Raise your hand if you've made tissue paper flowers before and been a little disappointed.
*raise*
Yeah, if you do this, you have to start with shopping. Here's the skinny on the Materials:
- FLORAL CREPE
When I first read about floral crepe, I thought, "What the crepe??" (Couldn't resist). But really, it's just like birthday party streamers but it comes is a huge roll! 10 feet by 3 feet, actually. And guess how much each roll costs? $2.50. IT'S CHEAPER THAN TISSUE PAPER, PEOPLE. Just order it. Believe me, I looked at Target, Michael's, Hobby Lobby, Paper Source, JoAnn and Walmart and no one has it. (I know, right?!)
I ordered mine from Castle In The Air. You'll have to wait a few days for it, but it's so worth it {bonus: their packaging is adorable}.
- FLORAL TAPE
Floral tape is the weirdest. It feels like thin paper until you stretch it a little bit which activates the stickiness. It pretty much only sticks to itself, and boy is it swell for stems. I don't use any glue, I just wrap my leaves and petals into the tape. Works great.
- FLORAL WIRE
18 gauge is the best. It's not expensive at
For the leaves on the left I used DOUBLE ply crepe paper. It's like thin cardboard almost. It's super thick paper and absorbs paint nicely.
Foliage: 6 minutes per stem,
approx $0.30 of materials per stem
Poppies: 7 minutes per stem,
approx $0.25 of materials per stem
Rose Buds: 4 minutes per stem,
approx $0.30 of materials per stem
You can find lots of petal and leaf templates online. I definitely suggest purchasing a book of how-tos. Hopefully this post will give you enough info to experiment with, so if you decide to get serious you'll know if you want to invest in a crafty undertaking on a larger scale. Who knows- maybe you can get your bridesmaids in on it!
I'm gonna be honest. These first two Peonies took me almost 30 minutes each. My third one took only about 15 once I got the hang of wrapping the petals. The time was worth it though, considering the materials for one peony total around $0.45 (compared to fresh peonies which go for SIX BUCKS a stem around here).
OH, and by the way: if you try out this DIY, let us know on Facebook, share a pic, and we will send you a bag of goodies, compliments of Laurel Avenue.
Happy Crafting!
Elena